smyser



5 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

H. E. SMYSER. FEED MEOHANISM PoR WBIGHING MACHINES.

INVENTOR:

0, 7 m. rr

Patented Oct. 27, 1896.

No. 570,109A

WITNESSES:

(No Model.) 5 Sheets-Sheet 2.

H. E. SMYSER. FEED MEGHANISM POR WBIGHING MAGHINES. No. 570,109.Patented 00's. 27, 1896.

FIG. 2.

WITNESSES: INVENTOR: t 7 C?! AfL/0712636, /g/y K14/y dlnmm '/@q (NoModel.) 4 5 Sheets-Sheet 3. l H. E. SMYSER.

FEED MBGHANISM POR WEIGHING MACHINES.

NVENTGR By his zameys; Ulm@ (@t,

'PatentedvOoL 2.7, 1896.

lll Il 1HE Norms PETERS co, PNoYaLl-rnov. wAsHmsrumm. c.

(N Model.) 5 Sheets-Sheet 4.

H. E. SMYSBR. FEED MEGHANISM FOB, WBIGHING MAGHINES.

No. 570,109. Patented 0013.27, 1896.`

WITNESSES:

. By his zomeys, m.nmm TQ3@ 5 Sheets-Sheet 5.

(No Model.)

H.E.SMYSBR. FEED MBCHANISM POR WEIGHING MACHINES. No. 570,109.

'Patented Oct. 27, 1896'.

NTOR: @ffy By his lfomeys, lm wmm F6 j,

WITNESSES;

UNITED STATES PATENT OEETCE HENRY E. SMYSER, OF PHILADELPHIA,PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO ARBUOKLE BROTHERS, OF NE\V YORK, N. Y.

FEED MECHANISNI VFOR WElGHlNG-IVIACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 570,109, dated October27, 1896.

Application filed March ZZ, 1895. Serial No. 542,761. (No model.)

To all whom it 11i/ty concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY E. SMYSER, a citizen of the United States,residing in Philadelphia, (Germantowm) in the county of Philadelphia andState of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Feed Mechanism for IVeighing-Nfachines, of which the followingis a specification.

This invention introduces certain improvements in weighing-machines inwhich a granular or powdered material is subdivided into uniformweights, and particularly to that class of Such machines in which thematerial is first measured out into charges of somewhat less than thefull weight desired and a small stream of material gradually added untilthe full weight is reached, whereupon the stream is out off. IVeighingapparatus acting on this principle are disclosed in my followingpatents: No. 376,683, granted January 17, 1888; No. 449,276, grantedMarch 3l, 1891; No. 470,146, granted March 1, 1892, and Nos. 493,795,493,796, 493,797, and 493,798,

, granted March 21, 1893.

In the construction embodied in Patent No. 470,146, for example, thematerial to be weighed is first measured in a series of reciprocatingboxes, which at intervals drop the measured charges of material throughdifferent chutes into the respective scale-pans of a series of scales.Each of the scales is then fed with a graduated stream or dribble of thematerial, these streams being fed by a feeding device consisting of ahopper having bottom openings communicating through chutes with therespective scale-pans'and a moving feed plate or disk havingperforations through it, into which the material falls, and from which,when the perforations move over said openin gs,the material fallsthrough the chutes to the scales. Such a feeding mechanism has beenfound to operate very successfully for feeding unground coffee, and isequally applicable with peas, beans, rice, and coarselygranulatedsubstances in general; but in operating with sugar, salt, and otherfinely granulated or powdered substances, and especially such as arevery hygroscopic, difficulty is experienced by reason-of thecohesiveness of the material, which may prevent it from falling into theperforations in the feedplate, or from filling them, or from falling outof them, or may otherwise render the supplemental feed to the scale-pansinsufficient or irregular, and by reason of the harsh'or crystalline andin some cases the adhesive nature of the materials being weigheddifficulty is encountered in measuring them by means of suchreciprocating measuring-boxes. It is to overcome these difficulties thatmy present invention is designed.

According to my present invention I no longer provide for measuring thematerial by a reciprocating box or measuring-cell; nor do I provide forcompletely filling the box or cell in which the measuring is effected.The measuring device consists of a stationary box or cell (or preferablya series thereof) open at top and bottom, with a slide or trap-door forclosing the bottom and a slide for cutting oif the supply of materialtending t'o enter the box from the general reservoir above, theconstruction being such that the material may enter in a stream into thebox and fill the same to such extent that it ceases to iow, remainingpiled within the upper part of the box, after which it is cutoff by themovement of the upper slide to close the inlet-opening, and subsequentlythe bottom of the box is opened to discharge its contents. By this meansa sufficiently accurate measurement is effected for giving the initialsupply to the scales. For feeding the supplementary streams of materialmy invention provides a hopper with a rotating coned disk forming itsbottom and scraping-blades for scraping off each a small portion of thematerial from the edge portion or rim of the disk, chutes being arrangedto catch the material falling from the scraping-blades to conduct thesame to the scales.

Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings is an end elevation of thepreferred embodiment of my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan thereof. Fig. 3is a side elevation viewed from the right in Fig. 1, being partly invertical midsection. Fig. 4 is a sectional plan, on a larger scale, ofthe supplemental feed-hopper. Fig. 5 is a vertical section thereof onthe line 5 5 in Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a fragmentary vertical longitudinalsection through the measuring apparatus, taken on the line 6 6 in Fig.

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` neath the chtite ci..

which is concealed in Fig. C. Fig. 7 is a sectional plan cut in theplane of the line 7 7 in Fig. G. Fig. is a plan, and Fig. 9 is a sideeleva-tion, of a detail of the mechanism for operating the scales. Fig.l() is a fragmentary vertical section answering to Fig. G and showingone et' the n'ieasuring-boxcs in operation.

'lhe drawings show aI machine having ten scale-pans, and consequentlyten measuringboxes. The apparatus as shown in the drawings constitutes apart of a complete machine adapted not only to subdivide the materialinto weighed charges, but also to deposit it in bags and to close thesebags to form packages, which are thus automaticallymade and deliveredfrom the machine. The mechanisms for these apparatus, however, are notshown in the drawings, as they form no part of my present invention.

'lhematerial to be weighed, for example sugar, is conducted downwardfrom any suitable storage-bin or receivinghopper, through a chute A,Figs. l and 3, into a reservoir or supply-box B. Preferably the chute Ais divided into branches, as shown in Fig. 3, so as to distribute thematerial more uniformly throughout the reservoir. rlhe material descendsuniformly in proportion as it is taken away from the reservoir, thechute being kept full of material. In the bottom of the reservoir B is aseries of supply-chutes a a, equal in number to the measuring-boxes-inthis case ten. Directly beneath these chutes are placed themeasuring-boxes C C, which are preferably so mounted as to remainstationary. These boxes are open at top and bottom and have slides ortrap-doors or any other equivalent construction for closing theirbottoms. rlhese bottom slides are lettered Zi b. For cutting off thesupply of material to the boxes a series ol top slides e c is provided,coming directly beneath the chutes Ct a, so to stop the flow of materialthrough these chutes. Beneath the measuring-boxes C C are arrangeddelivery-chutes d d, from which extend conductingtubes or chutes l) D,which lead downward into the respective scale-pans e e ot' theweighing-scales E E, Fig. Preferably the Ineasuringboxes C C and theirslides are inelosed in a box or chamber F, which is convenientlyconstructed as a downward continuation of the box constituting thereservoir l.

ln operation the lower slides l) Z) are first moved in to positionbeneath the boxes C C to close their bottoms, as shown in Fig. (l, andthen the upper slides c e are moved to one side to open the eh utes fta, whereupon the material llows from the reservoir through these chutesinto the boxes, nearly filling them, the stoppage of the vflow ofmaterial leaving it; approximately as shown in Fig. lO, that is to say,heaped up in the upper part of each box be- 'lhe slides c are then movedunder the chutes a to close them, as

i. Fig. G is an elevation showing a cam shown in Fig. ti, therebycutting ell the Ilow ol material into the boxes. Shortlythereafter theslides l) are moved out from under the boxcs,thereby permitting thecontents thereot` to fall through the chutes d d and D D into therespective scale-pans. After a sufficient time to permit all thematerialto run out the slides l) l) are moved back under the boxes. The slides cc are then moved out from under the supply-chutes and the boxes areagain iilled as before. rlhe scale-paus ol' the several scales nowcontain each a measured charge of material of somewhat less than thedesired weight, say, for example, about ninetenths of such weight. Toautomatically supply enough more material to complete the full weight, asupplemental feed mechanism is provided which in its general operationdoes not differ greatly from that shown in some of my previous patents.A portion of the material escapes from the reservoir l through a seriesof perl'orations j', Fig. t, `in the side ol the box and falls thenceinto a box G, from which it descends, Fig. l, through a chute g, whichconducts it into the supplemental feedhopper H. This hopper isconstructed with a stationary outer wall 7L, Figs. l and 5, and withabottom consisting of a rotary feed plate or disk I.

Some suitable means is providedforgiving the material in the hopper atendency to move outwardly toward the wall 7i., this rcsult beingpreferably effected by forming the feed-plate I with its central portionswelled upwardly in the :form of a cone, as best shown in Fig. 5. Thematerial thus slides down the sides of this eone,and is thus impelled byits own weight outwardly against the wall 71. This wall is formed atintervals with openings or notches j/ t' in its lower sides,

these openings being equal in number to the scales. The weight of thematerial as it is impelled outward bythe cone causes it to flew towardthese openings, and it is pushed through each by a scraper li, fallingthence through an outer opening j and stationary chute y into a movablechute 7c, carried by the scale-beam m. Se long as the weight in thescale-pan is less than the weight of the counterweight w this chutedelivers the material into the pan, as shown in Fig. 5, but as soon asthe full weight desired is delivered into the pan the descent oil thelatter by tilting the scale-beam throws the chute 7.1 se that itdischarges outside the scale-pan, the discharge then falling into areceiver .l beneath. i(See Fig. The merc rotation of the feed-plate l inconnection with its construction as a cone to cause the material. togravitate outwardlymight cause some discharge of material through theopenings t' into the ehutesj, but the quantity thus discharged would beindeterminate and dillicultof regulation, and would, presumably, bewanting in uniformity by reason of the material being introduced fromthe chute y eccentrically into the hopper lll.

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To provide a uniform and progressive feed for the respective scales, Iarrange in each opening a scraping blade or plate K, these blades beingset tan gentially, so that each one stands oblique to the direction ofmotion of the material as it is carried around by the rotation of thefeed-plate I, so that each blade scrapes off a portion of the materialand causes it to be pushed through the opening and off the edge of thefeed-plate into the chute j. The outward gravitation of the materialafter passing each scraping-blade and before reaching the next carriessufficient material in front of the next blade to afford a sufficientsupply to be pushed by that blade through the opening. Preferably theblades all exten d inwardly to an equal distance from the center, and toprovide means for relatively adjusting the flow of material through therespective openings the blades are so mounted that they can be adjustedforward or back, so as to vary the area of the free passage through theopenings. To this end each blade is mounted on a plate n, which isadjustablyfastcned to the wall 7L, preferably by set-screws engagingslotted holes in the plates, as shown in Fig. 4. If too much material ispassing through any opening, the blade is moved nearer to the oppositeside of the opening, so as to contract the passage through it, therebyreducing the amount of material which is forced through the opcnin g bythe blade. All the material that is arrested by the blade and cannotpass through the opening piles up against the blade and flows over itstop, falling back of it and being carried on to the next blade. By meansof this construction of supplemental feed mechanism a uniform andcontinuous stream of material is caused .to descend through each of thescale-chutes 7a.

The weighing apparatus is constructed to afford a sufficient time afterthe dumping of the measured charges of material into the scales topermit the full weight to be fed thereto by the supplemental feedmechanism,

and after all of the scales have thus com-- pleted the weighingoperation they are simultaneously dumped by means of a ring p, which israised to engage ears q, projecting from the pivoted front walls of thescale-pans, whereby these walls are moved up to permit the material toflow out from the bottom. The material falls into pockets or receptaclesL L beneath7 equal in number to the scales. In order to prevent thesudden flying up of the scale-pans when relieved of their weight by therunning out of the material, a mov able weight-lifter Mis provided,which at the instant of dumping moves up beneath the counterweights wand support-s them, so that their weight is taken off from thescalebeams.

The pockets or receptacles L L revolve intermittently, and as each onereaches a position over the dischargechute Nits contents are dumped intothis chute by means of a movable arm o', Fig. 1, which lifts and strikesa projecting lug on the movable outer wall of the pocket, therebylifting this wall and permitting the material to run out beneath it intothe chute. The pockets are carried around the receiver J, into which isconstantly flowing the overflow from the weighing-scales, and the wheelL', which carries the pockets, carries a scraper J which pushes theaccumulated material around until it comes over another discharge-chuteP, by which it is conducted away to any suitable place, from which itcan be again elevated, if desired, and conducted back to the reservoirB.

I will now describe the mechanism by which the described parts areoperated.

Power is applied through a driving-shaft 10 by miter-gears 11 to anupright shaft 12, which through a sprocket wheel and chain 13 drives anupright shaft 14, and this in turn by a sprocket-wheel drives a chain15, which runs over a sprocket-wheel 16, Fig. 5, which is fixed on thehub of the feed-disk I, by means of which the latter is rotated.

A The driving-shaft 10 through miter-gears 17 drives a horizontal shaft18, carrying a lworm 19, which meshes with a worm-wheel 20, Fig. 1, on ashaft 21 beneath the worm and worm-wheel, being proportioned to turn theshaft 2l at one-tenth the speed of the shaft 10, (its speed thuscorresponding to the ten weighing-scales.)

The bottom slides b for the measuring-boxes are mounted on transversebars s s, Fig. 7, fixed on a slide t, which passes out through the endof the box F and is connected by a link 22 to a lever 23, fulcrumed at24, carrying a roller which works in the cam-groove of a cam t', Fig. 6,on the shaft 21. The upper slides or cut-off plates c c for closing thesupply-chutes a a are constructed, preferably, as transverse plates,(shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2,) which are xed on a longitudinal slideu, which passes out at the end of the box F and is connected by a link25 to a lever 26, fulcrumed also at 24 and carrying a roller which worksin the cam-groove of a cam u', Fig. 6h The cams t' and a are setrelatively as shown in Figs. G and 6a, their construction being suchthat the slide u is first moved to close the chutes a. The slide t isthen moved to open the bottoms of the measuring-boxes, held for aninstant, and then returned to close these boxes, after which the slide uis moved back to open the inlet-chutes and permit the boxes to refill.

The dumping-ring 29 is operated, as heretofore,by a cam p on the shaft21,acting through a lever-arm 27, rock-shaft 28, and two leverarms 29.The weight-lifter Mis constructed as a disk carried on a sliding sleeve30, movable freely on a stationary sleeve c. The

sleeve 30 is engaged by a rigid arm 31, Figs. S and 9, projecting from avertically-moving slide 32, which isoperated by means of a link 33 andlever 34 from a cam M', fixed on the shaft 21.

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The pockets L L, which constitute no novel part of my present invention,are operated as many times faster than the weighing mechanism as thetotal number of scales. In this instance, there being ten scales, thepockets are advanced intermittently by connection with the shaft l0,which revolves ten times to one revolution of the shaft 2], which drivesthe weighingmechanism. The pockets are carried on a wheel L', which isfixed on an upright shaft t", the lower end of which has fixed on itawheel-zul, Fig. 3, having ten peripheral notches, which are engaged by apropellingbolt 40, carried by a radial arm, the arm being vibratedone-ten th of a revolution at each movement and the bolt being protrudcdinto engagement with a notch before each movement and retractedtherefrom before the return movement. A locking-bolt atl is alsoprovided to hold the parts stationary during the return movement. rllhevibrating arm and the bolts are separately operated tlirough links 35and levers 3U from two cams 37, fixed on the shaft l0. This mechanism isshown in detail in my said Patent No. 493,795, except that in theconstruction there illustrated the parts are differently arranged, t-hecams being on twodifferent shafts instead of on the same shaft, as atpresent.

Itis desirable to provide some means for varying at will the contents ofthe measuringboxes in order to compensate for differences in ratio ofbulk to weight of different materials, as well as of different lots ofthe same material. Such adjustment should be capable of being madesimultaneously for all of the measuring-boxes, and by an operation whichcan easily be performed while the machine is in operation. To accomplishthis,the present invention provides the construction best shown in Figs.G and 7. Each measuring-box is constructed with three sides fixed inplace and a fourth side movable. This movable side may consist of aplate with its opposite edges turned in, as shown in Fig. 7, or may beconstructed in any other way, so that it may be moved into or out of thefixed sides to thereby vary the capacity of the box. For simultaneouslymoving a-ll these movable sides to like extent, they are mount-ed on aseries of cross-bars fr] y, xed to a longitudinal slide Q, which islongitudinally movable in the casing F, an adjusting hand-Wheel Q' beingprovided for moving it. rthis handwheel preferably engages the slidethrough some construction of' screw adjustment, as, for example, byforming a screw y on the end of the slide and constructing theadjustingwheel as a nut screwing on this screw and prevented from movinglongitudinally by being engaged by a fixed part if entering an annulargroove in the nut, as shown in Fig. G, so that the turning of the nutpropels the slide longitudinally in either direction.

It is characteristic of my invention that the supply-chute ci of eachmeasuring-box C is arranged above the top of the box and is ofconsiderably smaller area, in order that however long it may be leftopen the material shall not overflow the box, but shall rciiiain in aheap or pile, as indicated in Fig. lO, and that the upper slide orcut-ell' c shall operate in the space between the chute and the box, sothat as it advances 'it shalt cut through this pile, leaving the portionof niaterial beneath it held by the box, while the portion above it issustained in the chute and kept from further running or leaking downduring the period of emptying of the box. In this construction the slidec is enabled to move freely without coming in contact with anyof thefixed parts,n'ithout working through slots or slideways, andencountering no resistances except that of the material which it touchesin its progress.

As shown in Fig. 6, the slides c c are slightly below and out of contactwith the bottoms of the chutes ci a, and the slides D i) are also belowand out of contact with the bottoms of the measuring-boxes. This ispractically requisite for operating with sugar or other granulatedsubstanccs having hard particles, as, it' the parts worked in metalliccontact, much unnecessary friction would be created bythe wedging of thegranules between them. rllhe arrangement shown is admissible with nearlyall materials except perhaps very fine or light powders.

Myinvention is susceptible of considerable modification in matters ofstructural or inechanical detail and in the general proportioning andarrangement of the parts. For example, it is not by any means confinedtothe use of ten scales and ten measuring-boxes, but any other suitablenumber of' scales and measuring-boxes may be employed. In fact part ofthe gist of my invention would be embodied in an apparatus having onlyone scale and one measuring-box, although such an apparatus could notwork rapidly enough to be profitable for the uses for Twhich anautomatic weighing-machine is liable to be required. The arrangements ofcams and levers for actuating the moving parts may be greatly varied.

I claim as my invention the following-defined novel features,substantially as hereinbefore specified, namely:

l. In aweighing-inachine, the combination with its scale pan and beam ofa measuring apparatus adapted to measure a given bulk of material anddump it into the scale to be weighed, comprising a measuring-box havingan open top, a supply-chute for directing material into said box,terminating near to, and of less area than, the top of the box, se thatmaterial entering the box by gravity from said chute may assume itsnatural slope in the box without running over, a slide working beneathsaid chute for cutting olf the pile of material, a movable bottom forthe box adapted to open and dump its contents, a delivery-chutel leadingthence to the scale-pan, and driving mechanism for operating said IIOslide and bottom, adapted to first close said bottom, then open saidslide and leave it open long enough 'for the material to flow from thechute into the box and to fill the latter and cease iiowing, standing ina pile under said chute, then to close said slide to cut off said pile,and finally to open said bottom.

2. In a weighing-machine having a plurality of scales, the combinationof a measuring apparatus comprising a reservoir B for the material to beweighed, formed with a series of supply-chutes a a, slides c c workingbeneath said chutes for cutting off the supply, stationarymeasuring-boxes C C arranged beneath said chutes, having open tops oflarger area than the bottoms of the chutes, bottom slides b b movable toclose or open the bottoms of said boxes, a casing F inclosing said boxesand slides, having bottom openings under the respective boxes, andchutes D D leading from said bottom openings to the respectivescale-pans.

3. In a weighing-machine of the described class, a supplemental feedmechanism consisting of a feed-box comprising an outer wall which isstationary with relation to the scales, and a relatively revolvingbottom plate projecting beneath it with means for directing the materialoutwardly over said plate toward said wall, said Wall having a series ofopenings, a series of scraping-blades projecting diagonally through saidopenings to remove material from the portion of the plate adjacent tosaid wall, and direct it through the openings and over the edge of theplate, and a series of chutes arranged to conduct the streams ofmaterial from said blades to the respective scales.

4. In a weighing-machine of the described class, a supplemental feedmechanism consisting of a feed-box H comprising a stationary wall h,having bottom openings t' t', and a revolving feed-plate I coned todirect the material outwardly toward said wall and proj ecting beneathsaid wall, a series of scrapingblades K K projecting diagonally throughsaid openings to direct material through the openings and over the edgeof the plate, and a series of chutes jj arranged to conduct the streamsof material to the respective scales.

5. In a weighing-machine of the described' class, a supplemental feedmechanism consisting of a feed-box I-I comprising a stationary wall hhaving bottom openings t' t', and a revolving feed-plate I, with meansfor directing the material outwardly toward said wall, a series ofscraping-blades K K projecting diagonally through said openings,fastening devices for said blades constructed to permit adjustment ofthe blades in direction parallel with said wall 7L, so as to increase orreduce the effective area of the openings, and a series of chutesarranged to conduct the streams of material from said blades to therespective scales.

6. In a weighing-machine of the described class comprising acircularly-arranged series of scales E E and mechanisms for feedingmaterial to the scale-pans, the combination therewith of means fordumping the scale-pans at intervals, and means for preventing any suddenupward movement of the scale-pans on being discharged of their load, thelatter means consisting of a verticallymovable lifter M arranged beneaththe counterweights w of the scales, mounted upon a verticallymovableslide, with a cam and intervening connections adapted to raise thelifter against the counterweights immediately before the dumping of thescale-pans, and to lower it slowly after the dumping of the pans.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

. HENRY E. SMYSER.

Vitnesses z JAMES J. FROST, W. F. HErssENHELTRE.

